Page 4 of Gamble with Me
While I shuffled the cards for the next game, I lost myself thinking of how I could have lived in New York for ten years and never have heard of the brothers. It seemed as if everyone knew them. Some avoided them like the plague, while a few courageous ones lingered around the table, watching the big game.
I didn't see anything abnormal, but then I noticed when our daily customer, Johnny, accidentally kicked Malin's chair. He almost fell to his knees, apologizing. I lifted my eyebrows, and Dorian chuckled, but Malin didn't move a muscle. His eyes were fixed on me, and an alarm in my head went wild. He sat at the table like a king, and people around him weren't even worth one of his bored glances. It was weird, and I started to feel the effects of his presence.
"You don't know who we are, do you?" Malin said in a low voice, leaning closer to me. "Valeria."
I looked into his stoic face, opening my mouth, but nothing came out. His scrutinizing gaze held me prisoner. He stared at me like I was an exhibit in a museum.
"Don't scare her," Dorian interjected, playing with five-hundred-dollar chips. He shot me a smile, but he didn't ease the tension. The atmosphere rapidly became heavier. "She's been nothing but nice to us."
"Everyone is nice to us," Malin pointed out, watching my face closely. I wanted to hide under the table from his piercing look.
"Well, you supposedly eat babies for breakfast. Even I feel the need to be nice to you, and we shared a womb once." Dorian shrugged, winking at me, but instead of making me smile, my poor, empty stomach turned to knots from this odd conversation. Because of the expressions of other players, I really had no idea if he was making fun of us or not.
I smiled nervously, putting the cards into the dealer's shoe and waiting for them to place bets.
"What do you think, Valeria? Do I like babies for breakfast?" Malin asked. I frowned, not understanding what he was doing. He obviously enjoyed my nervous state.
"Of course." I nodded, and he raised one eyebrow. "I'm sure, thanks to it, you have such great skin and no wrinkles."
"See." Dorian chuckled, slamming his brother's shoulder hard. "I told you she's nice."
"Yes, you did," Malin whispered, sending shivers down my spine.
He finally looked away from me, counting his chips and preparing two three-thousand-dollar bets. I released a deep breath, but my heart skipped a beat when Dorian left to play the tournament while Travis left me at the blackjack table for another round. I kept a polite smile in place, and my hands made learned moves, but my mind was preoccupied with the person in front of me.
For half an hour, he didn't say a word. Nothing. Not even a sigh escaped his mouth when he lost thirty thousand dollars. And then, he started winning. No matter the decision he made, he won. Five times, I shuffled six packs of cards, and he won every single game I dealt. It was impossible. I had to ask Travis for a refill because all the chips I had were on his side.
Linda, the oversight of the live games, stood behind my back, and Travis watched everything from the side, but none of them stopped it. After maybe thirty games in a row, I finally managed to win one. I glanced at my boss, but he only rolled his eyes. Clearly, he didn't dare stop Malin from robbing the casino.
"Are you counting cards again?"
A profound, hostile, raspy male voice interrupted my concentration, and not only me but everyone who watched Malin's game turned in the direction of a man who knocked the air out of my lungs just because of his looks.
The man who came to the table was surely the third Zhumagulov brother. I didn't know his name, but given the reactions of customers and employees who noticed him, he was the boss. People quickly stepped aside to make room for him but avoided direct eye contact. They were shit scared, and truth be told, I was too, but I wasn't sure if it wasbecause of his intimidating, arrogant presence or because I was reacting the same way as everyone around me.
He was dressed in an all-black, three-piece suit, a button-up shirt, tie, watch, and shoes—everything on him was black. His hair was so dark that it looked almost wet and fell into his eyes, which looked like bottomless pits in hell. His entire neck was tattooed, and some wingy monster stared at us from under his collar. A skull also beautified the back of his right hand, and on the other, he had a few snakes. He was creepy and scary, as if he had just walked out of some freak show, yet I found him oddly mesmerizing.
He was shocking and frightening; one glance at his sinister eyes could probably make me pee myself, but at the same time, I felt a weird tingling in my stomach, which traveled through my entire body, poisoning my cells, nerves, and eventually thoughts.
His face had the exact contours of his brothers', but his expression was deadly. He had nothing in common with Dorian's playful smile and excitement in his eyes. He was like a dragon, ready to breathe fire and destroy everyone and everything in his path, yet maybe, just maybe, we were lucky enough, and he honored us with his presence because he was in a good mood.
"I'm testing them, and they are failing," Malin replied, tapping his long fingers against the yellow surface of the table. His voice brought me back to reality, and I quickly glanced at Travis, who stared in horror at the two identical men.
"Well, that's a shame," the third bother said, faking sadness and opening his suit jacket. I watched in what felt like slow motion as he pulled out a golden gun.
My breath hitched in my throat. An image of my beautiful daughter appeared before my eyes when he pulled the trigger.
Instinctively, I crouched down and covered my head with my hands. The panic quickly spread, and even when the bullet ended up in the ceiling, not hurting anyone, people scattered in all directions like frightened chickens.
I was breathing hard, hidden under the table with Linda next to me, trembling with fear. I heard someone shouting at guests to get out and never come back, and I peeked over the edge of the table to see Dorian standing at the door with a gun in his left hand. Malin was behind the bar, overseeing the servers, and the third of them had disappeared.
Connecting my eyes with Linda's, I indicated to her to stand up and walk to the door with me. She agreed, and together, we slowly moved toward the front entrance, but Dorian instantly stopped us, allowing only the customers to leave.
"Employees must stay," he announced nonchalantly like he wasn’t pointing a gun at us, pushing us to the VIP saloon. Almost all my colleagues were already gathered there, shaking like leaves in the wind from the pure panic.
I sat on the high stool at the ultimate poker table, placing my hands in my lap. I trembled slightly but did my best to keep a stoic face. The brothers didn't have a reason to hurt us. They would probably announce something and would allow us to leave.
"Do you know what is going on?" Alice asked when she sat beside me; her eyes were as big as saucers. She frantically glanced around, but there was no sign of what should happen in the next few minutes.
